Chance me please!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

<p>I’m a rising senior and I plan to apply to Washington University in St. Louis as an early decision candidate. I have some special circumstances (wrote down below my basic info), so if you could peruse below and respond carefully, I would appreciate your help so much. Chance me, please!</p>

<ul>
<li>Basic info:</li>
<li>Current school: private, all-girls boarding school (one student from our school is going to WashU this fall)</li>
<li>Ethnicity: Asian (Have an American green card)</li>
<li>Gender: Female</li>
<li><p>Possible major in college: 1st choice- psychology; 2nd choice- biology</p></li>
<li><p>Special circumstances:
I was diagnosed with lymphoma at the beginning of my junior year. So, from late January to early June, I was getting chemotherapy and radiation. During these months, I was obviously out of school. However, I continued studying at home with tutors and kept with two of my junior year courses—English 11 and AP Calc AB. I couldn’t continue with all of my subjects because of my health condition. </p></li>
<li><p>Test scores:</p></li>
<li><p>GPA: 3.71 (W); 3.68 (UW)</p></li>
<li><p>SAT score: 2110 in June (600 R, 780 M, 730 W) (I’ll take one more time in October. I’m hoping a score over 2200)</p></li>
<li><p>SAT 2 Subject tests: Math IIC- 750; Korean with Language-800; I also took world history test, but I screwed it up, so I won’t send it… It’s possible that WashU sees my history test score, but I hope the admission people ignore it. I'll take Bio in November and send it to school directly.</p></li>
<li><p>TOEFL: 111 out of 120 (During sophomore year. I recently took again, and I am guessing I did better this time. I’ll receive my score this week.) </p></li>
<li><p>AP: AP Calc-4; English lit-2 (I managed to take the exams in May. I know my scores are obviously not good for WashU, but I took these exams while I was getting treatment, so I didn’t have the best condition.)</p></li>
<li><p>School courses:
Freshman yr:</p></li>
<li><p>English 9 (1 credit)</p></li>
<li><p>Honors Physics (1)</p></li>
<li><p>Advanced Algebra (1)</p></li>
<li><p>Spanish 1 (1)</p></li>
<li><p>Western Civilization History (1)</p></li>
<li><p>Introductory Computer Science (required course) (.5)- only for a semester</p></li>
<li><p>Advanced Performance Ensemble (.5)</p></li>
<li><p>Cello lesson (.5)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Sophomore year:
- English 10 (1)
- Chemistry (No honors chem. at my school) (1)
- Precalculus (1)
- Spanish 2 (1)
- History of Modern China & History of Modern Japan (1)
- Computer Graphics (.5)- only for a semester
- Advanced Performance Ensemble (.5)
- Cello lesson (.5)</p>

<p>Junior year:
- English 11 (1)
- AP Chemistry (Dropped after 1st quarter due to too busy schedule) (1)
- Biology (Again, no honors bio) (1)
- AP Calculus AB (1)
- Spanish 3 (1)
- US History (1)
- Advanced Performance Ensemble (.5)
- Cello lesson (.5)</p>

<p>Senior year:
- English 12 (1)
- AP Biology (1)
- AP Statistics (1)
- AP US History (1)
- Spanish 3 (repeating) (1)
- Advanced Performance Ensemble (.5)
- Cello lesson (.5)- Not sure
[I’ll add psychology, which is only offered during spring semester, and Japanese Independence during spring semester]</p>

<ul>
<li>Extracurricular: I’ll mention just a few</li>
<li>Cello since 7 (I’m the only cellist in Ensemble)</li>
<li>Northern Regional Orchestra (CMEA)- cello</li>
<li>All-States Orchestra (CMEA)- cello</li>
<li>Volunteer at a senior retirement center- My friends and I, as a trio, played music for seniors every month</li>
<li>V Badminton (11th)</li>
<li>V Ultimate (9th; possibly 12th)</li>
<li>JV Squash/ Third Squash (9th & 10th)</li>
<li><p>Volunteer at a national university hospital (9th-present)
Thus far, I volunteered over 110 hours. I’m volunteering at a hospital now as well. I’ll also continue with my trio in the fall.</p></li>
<li><p>Positions:</p></li>
<li><p>Head of Tour Guide (12th)</p></li>
<li><p>Head of ISAC club (international student awareness club) (12th)</p></li>
<li><p>Math Team Captain (11th-present)</p></li>
<li><p>Communications Coordinator of community service club- The advisor of this club offered me a newly made position. (12th)</p></li>
<li><p>Usher (12th)</p></li>
<li><p>Tri-captain of 3rd squash (9th)
[Community service club and tour guide are two of most active clubs at school]</p></li>
<li><p>Recommendations:</p></li>
<li><p>English teacher: Decent. I’ve never received an A in her class (9th & 11th), but I believe she’ll write a decent recommendation for me. On my recent report card, she commented me as a student who teaches a teacher.</p></li>
<li><p>AP Calc AB teacher: Good/great. I’m not super close to her, but I’ve shown my effort during treatment and she said she was impressed.</p></li>
<li><p>Advisor: Super great. She’s known me so well since my freshman year and we’ve been skyping almost every week during my treatment and even now!</p></li>
<li><p>College counselor: ?? Because I was out of school during junior spring, I didn’t get to know her as much as others might have, but we’ve skyped and emailed time to time.</p></li>
<li><p>Essays: Good/great (Hopefully, I’ll have a really great essay by the time I apply. I should probably put a lot of time on my essay.)</p></li>
<li><p>Campus visit/interview: End of August (WashU is also visiting my school in October.)</p></li>
<li><p>Questions:</p></li>
<li><p>Is it possible to send only my AP Calculus AB score (excluding eng lit score)? Will WashU understand my bad AP scores?</p></li>
<li><p>Will WashU understand if I don’t join a team sports this fall because of my condition? I feel like I have to get used to going to classes first, for I haven’t gone to classes for such a long time (It will be 9th months by the time my school starts).</p></li>
<li><p>I have a green card. Will WashU put my application in international or American file?</p></li>
<li><p>If I get good grades during first semester of my senior year, will that cover my GPA a little bit?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it possible to update a pre-application data sheet after I submit? (Best to send as soon as possible?)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>If you give any suggestions, that would be so helpful!!!
Thank you so much for reading my LONG post!</p>

2

<p>I would say, as long as you aren’t doing anything medical, your chances are 70%-ish.
If you are doing something medical, especially premed, it’s a total crapshoot.</p>

<p>Your questions:

  1. You only report the APs you want to report.
  2. You can have your counselor explain the special situation and have him say that you aren’t dropping out of classes because you’re flaky but because of your condition. He will have to attach medical records FYI.
  3. If you have a green card, you are an American citizen. In the eyes of the adcoms, you are just as American as any apple pie eating, baseball game watching, McDonald’s enthusiast in this country. However, your being asian will hurt you because of asians being over represented at WUSTL.
  4. Adcoms wanna see a consistent upward trend. If your grades are all over the place, it wont look good. Just do your best and hope it works out.
  5. ?</p>

<p>Overall, your chances look good (:</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your reply!</p>

<p>Any more posts?</p>

4

<p>ED your chances are not bad. THey’d obviously be better if you could improve your SAT CR score.
RD it’s a crap shoot.
Good luck.</p>

5

<p>@kaleido- I’m not sure about your chances, because I don’t know much about WashU, BUT, I just though I would tell you that colleges don’t really value a language test at all if you already are fluent in it. So, the 800 in Korean is not something they would be surprised or shocked by, I would also submit another one with Math 2 (like bio).</p>

6

<p>You’re looking fine. And like the other people said RD is a crapshoot for 80% of the people who apply to top schools like WashU. 10% are a shoe-in, 10% are definite no’s, and the remaining 80%, it seems, get their names mixed in a bag and 20% of those names are randomly drawn for admission… :(</p>

7

<p>Use your circumstances to your advantage. Colleges value overcoming difficult obstacles and still doing well - make sure you write an essay on it, whether it’s your main or supplemental one. Perhaps include a doctor’s letter as further documentation.</p>

8

<p>if you’re really dedicated, apply ED. Because 3.71 GPA W is nowhere enough for any top-notch school</p>

9

<p>Agree with the above posts. Do explain your circumstances - in your essays, recommendations, supplemental materials, or the additional info section in common app. Hmmm, I can see a very good “overcomer essay” coming out…haha. </p>

<p>Regarding your 5th question - yes it is possible. Maybe this is just me but I sent in mine around the time I submitted my common application. Personally I wouldn’t recommend submitting the pre-application RIGHT NOW, well, probably not last minute either, but at least give it a little time. Even though Wash U’s pre-app isn’t that hard to fill out, still, you might get a more complete sense of what you really want as you go along in your application process :)</p>

10

<p>Hmm… I don’t necessarily agree with the above post saying Asians are overrepresented at WUSTL; I think it’s a pretty good balance, maybe slightly lower than average even.</p>

<p>Regarding your chances if you select premed, it’s not a total crapshoot for you. First of all, WashU is really flexible; you can change your preferences anytime til you select your major during sophomore. Many people who select premed on the pre-App drop out and vice versa. WashU knows this and they don’t really put too much effort in weeding out people because they are premed; they have an overall high standard for everyone, regardless of their major or professional choices.</p>

<p>I think your chances are not bad. My friend applied ED and got full aid with around the same SAT as you. Btw, if you’re Korean, the Korean SAT II won’t really help or make it worse since it’s your native tongue.</p>

<p>WashU will not see your history test score if you choose not to send it. They have a superscoring and “looking at your best score” policy.</p>

<p>Under your circumstances and as long as WashU doesn’t deem you “unfit” for university, I think you have a good chance if you apply ED.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

11

<p>you’re stats are pretty impressive, and I really hope that you get in. Don’t worry about the APs, your TOEFL, SAT II, and SAT score will suffice for that lol. Being an Asian may hurt you but I agree with every positive aspect to your application mentioned before. It’s really important to have teachers/school staff that knows you as an outstanding student. They will no doubt give you good recomendations–I think WUSTL will see through the hard work and will try to get to know the applicant through perseverence, EC’s, and other factors. Don’t worry about anything else, I think you’re set for the round and you just have to hope for the best (also try to apply to numerous other good universities as well; I think you have a chance there-even in ivy leagues).</p>

12

<p>Thank you so much everyone!!!
I really appreciate your help!! And thanks for your encouragement too!!! =)
I’ll try my best~!!</p>